2010年3月28日星期日

Technical Seminar on Worldwide Product Certification

I attended a technical seminar entitled “Worldwide Product Certification” which was organized by Hong Kong Branch Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Section of IET, Hong Kong Chapter of Product Safety Engineering Society (PSES) and MILES Alumni Association of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 27th March 2010. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) is one of supporting organization.

Since Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) has established by HKSAR government on 17 Sep 2009, this seminar aims to introduce the HKAS and worldwide product certification scheme to the participants.

Then Prof. H.C. Man (Asso. Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Prof and Head, Industrial and Systems Engineering Dept., PolyU) gave an opening speech of the seminar and he said that there were about 300 companies in this industry. The 3rd party certification was important in the industry.

Group Photo of organizers, guest speakers and supporting organizations

Mr. Chan introduced the four objectives of HKAS as follows:i) Support the development of the testing and certification industryii) Upgrade the industry standardiii) Promote confidence of testing, certification and inspection service from Hong Kongiv) Facilitate international tradev) Support local communityThen he briefed three schemes in HKAS, they are:i) Laboratory Test (HOKLAS, started in May 1985)ii) Certification (HKCAS, started in Nov 1998)iii) Inspection (HKIAS, started in Dec 1999)

He also explained what the production certification is.

Comparison between Testing, Inspection and Certification

The benefits of product certification were included Buyers, Sellers and Regulators. Buyers were able to identify quality products and reduce acceptance testing cost. Sellers used it as marketing tool and provided confidence in its own system. Regulators monitored safety and conformity of products at low administration cost through private sector resource to achieve regulatory objectives.

The third speaker was Mr. OR (柯燈明) (Supervisor, Shenzhen Academy of Metrology and Quality Inspection (SMQ), Shenzhen Bureau of Quality Technical Supervision; 深圳市質量技術監督局深圳市計量質量檢測研究院玩具檢測部) and his topic was “Recent update of China Compulsory Certification (CCC) 中國產品強制認證)

Mr. Or introduced the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) that it combined CCEE and CCIB mark because of WTO requirement. Therefore, a unified national product list, unified standard, technique requirement and implementation procedure, unified mark and price were developed.

Until now, CCC product list had 23 categories included 172 types of product. Those products in the list could be sold in mainland if and only if the product certified by authorized body with CCC mark since 1st June 2007.

Step 2: Submit Sample (Testing) The sample should be submitted to the authorized laboratory based the standard such as GB6675-2003 / GB19865-2005, etc.

Step 3: Factory Audit (only for child car) Audit included the capability of quality assurance and consistent of product quality.

Step 4: Certification Result and Approval It included certification information, testing result and factory audit result.

CCC certification sample

Step 5: Apply CCC mark and label

Step 6: Certification Surveillance Audit In general, the surveillance audit would be performed per 6 months.

The last speaker was Mr. Kevin Chan (Technical Manager, Toys Dept. of Specialized Technology Resources (HK) Ltd.) and his presentation title was “Recent Update of USA toys certification program”.

It was pity that Mr. Kevin Chan’s update was the suspension of the program TIA TSCP. The following were some background of the program extracted from website (http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?section=TSCP_Home).“The Toy Industry Association (TIA) is making the foundational aspects of its Toy Safety Certification Program® (TSCP®) freely available as online resources to help all toy companies, importers and testing laboratories facilitate compliance with the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The formal certification component of the TSCP is being placed on hold pending further U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) clarification of the law. If conditions change, we will look at how the TSCP program might also need to change to continue to promote enhanced toy safety.”

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作者筆名劍如虹，畢業於香港城市大學及香港理工大學，學術範圍包括應用科學，應用物理，電腦，化學及環境工程等，以業餘時間攻讀完工程管理博士學位。由於喜歡武俠故事式電腦遊戲，才引發奇想，把品質管理理論用武俠小說方式表達。作者現任職品質經理，曾多次於專業學會主辦的國際會議和學術期刊發表論文及研究報告。
Dr. Lotto Lai has 20 year hands-on experience in scientific research, quality assurance and management in Commercial Laboratory, University Testing Centre, Certification Body and Consultants Firm.
He is Former Chairman & Fellow in HKSQ, MHKIE, FASQ, CMQOE and IRCA QMS Lead Auditor, as well as, Asso. Academician in IAQ.